A New Favorite

Sorry for the late post, but I did have tons of fun!  I also apologize for the daily long postage (as opposed to three a day), it looks like that’s going to be the norm around here for a while.  The next three weeks are chockfull of exams; not like I did much studying today but you know!

I ate breakfast around 10:30 – just what happens when you wake up after 9! – so leftover green tuna enchilladas just felt right.

Amazingly, these were even more tasty after a day in the fridge!

I picked up the husband around 1 and we sat in the campus cafe to study a bit before class.  I’m not sure what has been up with my intensely specific cravings lately but today’s was for frozen coffee.  I just went with it…

A couple of thoughts – 1) I could make a frozen coffee at home for less calories and $ so this was a little silly; 2) this ended up being outrageously good and I’m so glad I got it!  I ordered the ‘Jamaican Me Cooler’ because it made me giggle and it ended up having coconut in it 🙂

Before my next class, a couple of hours later, I got sucked in by another beverage.

I adore Naked juice, coconut is pretty much my favorite thing, and the new nutritional stats looked good.

This was good but not as impressive as I was hoping for; I’d probably just drink a coconut water next time and save the calories.  It’s always good to get in some servings of fruit though!

I ended up having a pop quiz in Chemistry (?!?!) and even though we had leftovers about and a dinner plan it didn’t take too much for Adam to talk me into a dinner out.

We wandered over to Cozumel Grill and Tequilla Bar, a place we’ve been eyeing on all our recent walks,

and it’s our new favorite place on Earth!  Seriously, we might have just developed an obsession.  There were at least 10 things each that Adam and I were dying to try on the menu!  And they brought out complementary housemade tortilla chips and salsa.

I freaking dived into that basket, these chips were even better than the ones from Burrito Bar in Brooklyn.

For dinner I went with the Maryland Blue Crab Quesadilla.

So good!  Everything was super fresh and this felt so high-brow for a quesadilla.  I shared 1/4 with the husband who was pretty much in love as well.  We have plans to go back asap!

I hope everyone else had a great day.  Pleasant dreams and happy Fridaying.

How do you discover new restaurants?  I definitely look at Yelp for specific cravings but in general we find things by wandering around new neighborhoods.

Under the Influence

Hello from PA!  It was a loooong day in the car but we made it.  I’m more than ready for bed, and I have an actual topic to discuss, so I’ll keep the food recaps quick.

Breakfast this morning was a new kind of Green Monster.

For two (Adam and I) I blended 2cups frozen spinach, 1cup frozen strawberries, and 2cups skim milk.  They were ok, not even close to my regular GM love.

The reason I made the crappy new Green Monsters was because the husband tends to not like oj in smoothies, but was willing to give spinach smoothies a try.  Adam almost never eats breakfast, and doesn’t eat anywhere near enough servings of veggies, so if I could get him on the Green Monster band wagon it would be positive all around.  I know it seems like I eat a lot of crap (especially in comparison to the other healthy living bloggers) but in general I’ve been a good influence on the husband’s diet since we met.

  • He eats far less red meat now, maybe once a month or so.  He grew up in a more than once a day meat family.
  • He’s even gotten on board with the occasional vegetarian dinner.  And surprise – he loves tofu!
  • 90% of what I cook is healthy.
  • I always keep the house stocked with healthy snacks.
  • And even though he eats his own junk from time to time, he’s basically stopped eating any trans fat because of what I’ve told him about it.

Obviously as a medical student the husband has more health knowledge than the average American, but it feels really great to help someone I love make good choices.

For brunch (eaten at 9:30am?) I polished off the rest of the gumbo.

So fricking good, I can’t wait to share this recipe with y’all!

And when we got on the road we split a bag of Fizzy Skittles.

I am in love with the new nutritional panels I’ve been seeing on some products.  Obviously that blurb doesn’t tell the whole story (and there is complete info on the back) but I love being able to know calories at a glance.

By 7 we were starving for dinner.  When we pulled off Adam got giddy at the sight of this –

Eat n’ Park.  Meh.  I’m not big on diner food but he was very excited.  This is where the husband influences my choices (and not for the better!) I ended up ordering an Oreo Milkshake with my meal.

I always request skim milk when I order a milkshake.  I get no more enjoyment from a whole milk milkshake (in fact I much prefer skim) so it never hurts to ask.  Never be embarrassed to make healthy substitutions, even to a not-so-healthy order!

For dinner I ordered the pirogues.

I was starving but these were just not good.  I ate about 1/3 and then I stopped.  I know I’m not exactly the picture of good choices, but I do have one hard and fast rule – If it’s not good for me and I don’t like it I don’t eat it.  There are so many foods that I love and so many foods that are good for me, why eat something ho-hum just because it’s there?

You’ll never guess where we ended up stopping to get me the rest of my dinner –

Wegman’s salad bar!  I got lots of veggies and I loved them.  I’m not gonna lie, I picked all of the broccoli out of the container!

I also love these quad-containers, perfect portion control.  Thai style tofu and veggies,

General’s chicken,

and Paneer Mutter.

Yums!  I gave Adam a big bite of all three dishes and he loved them as well.

I was left perfectly satisfied by dinner, and probably should have just said no to pizza at the in-laws, but it just looked too tasty.

A weekend trip isn’t exactly a ‘vacation,’ tomorrow I’m going to try to eat a little less crap.  It’s bedtime in these parts, sweet dreams!

How have you influenced your significant other’s eating habits?  What healthy changes have you inspired (or been inspired by)?

The South in a Can

I hope my readers get to this post late because they were out drinking green beer, there was certainly no Irish mischief in this house!  Opening up a Wonka Bar was about as much excitement as I had time for.

I ate half a serving and really liked it.

Then I ran a few errands with the husband and hit up the Spot for a 5:30 – 8:30 study session with Caroline.  We bombed all of our practice tests, I’m a little worried about this Friday.  While I was there I split a pizza bagel with Adam.

My delicious half –

I resisted the green milkshakes with green whipped cream that were floating around, but just barely!

My dinner plan was a 1 cup leftover serving of Cocoa-Coconut Chili pulled from the freezer, so I pulled out this can of okra and tomatoes to jazz it up.

I bought the can on a whim a while back because the nutritional stats were good but it took me forever to open it.

Tonight I put 1/2cup on top of my chili.

As well as a bit of 2% sharp cheddar.

The bowl didn’t exactly knock my socks off but it was healthy and filling.  I have 1 more bag (1cup) of chili in the freezer and I’m already excited about my planned toppings for it.

My pm goal is shower + magazine reading before 10:30 bedtime, I’ll see you in the am.

How did you celebrate St. Patrick’s today?

Sandwiches, Smoothies, and Schedules

Hello again, happy Monday!  This will definitely be the longest recap post I’ve done in a while – Friday through Monday.  Physically things have been low-key but mentally there’s been lots of drama – my flight was canceled!  And since I’m in St. Thomas it could have meant getting into Buffalo on Tuesday and not having a ride and missing class.  I was freaking out a bit.  Thankfully 45minutes on the phone + my firm but calm voice got me on a different flight that leaves/gets in on pretty much the same schedule.  And now my layover is shorter and in Philly and not Charlotte.  🙂

I’m a big proponent of the firm but calm voice.  I was polite, and said multiple please and thank yous, but unwavering.  I didn’t ask whether or not I could get on another flight, I simply said “I will be leaving St. Thomas tomorrow, what can you do to help me make that happen?”  And it worked.

Anyway, back to Friday.  My mom served me a slice of cake,

which promptly got stripped of it’s icing because I don’t eat cake.

Then I moved on to greens, a small container I put together at the salad bar we stopped by.

Lettuce, beans, corn, cheese, 1 hard-boiled egg and a drizzle of light Cesar.

I also made myself some frozen coffee – coffee, ice, skim milk, and 2T sugar.

Soo much better than Starbucks could ever do.

Dinner was all about the leftovers.

Oven baked okra is kind of my favorite.

And I served up some leftover baked tofu on toasted rye with hot pepper raspberry preserves and sharp cheddar.

Friday night I did end up going out to meet some friends.  We had a good time and I had a few drinks but photo-taking was abandoned in favor of trying to keep my balance on one leg!  I don’t know how on earth I managed to stand on one leg past 2am but a fun time was had by all.

For Saturday morning breakfast my mom and I hit up one of my favorite places on earth – Barefoot Buddha.  I had fresh-made lemonade,

and a Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich.

Frittata, smoked turkey, turkey bacon, cream cheese, spicy sauce…

I love these sandwiches so much I ate them on my wedding day!  I know most brides say they are too nervous to eat but I was just nervous my friends would devour them before I got any 😀

We hung out and studied for a bit and I had a passionfruit, banana, coconut smoothie.

We laid low the rest of the day before going out to a fabulous dinner at The Cellar.  We did a lot of sharing and the lighting was low so let me apologize for the picture quality in advance.

There were way too many things I wanted off the drink menu but I finally settled on the Caribbean Champagne.

Champagne with coconut rum and key lime juice.  GREAT combination.

We split a cheese plate that was kind of out of this world.  The goat cheese was my favorite but the stewed plums were pretty fantastic as well.

My plate –

And at The Cellar the chef always sends out an amuse bouche.

Ahi wontons.

Plus homemade bread and butter.

For my meal I got the Vegetable Cutlet – panfried, potatoes, peas, carrots, eggplant and pickled papaya, and tiki masala sauce.

The cutlets were delicious but my favorite part of the entire meal was the eggplant wrapped papaya.  I ate one cutlet and took the other home, and I had a few bites of my dad’s tamarind mahi as well.

We were stuffed, but couldn’t not order a dessert plate to share.  It came with little forks,

because we got four little desserts!

NY cheesecake with fruit sauce and bananas foster,

cinnamon creme brulee and chocolate mousse.

Yum, yum, yum; I wished I could have had a BIG serving of the bananas foster.

Sunday morning I made a nice green monster for breakfast.

My mom and I got our nails done (green again, I’ll show you later!) and then I picked up nachos for lunch from the bar I used to work at.

Yum, but I think it’s time to be fully done with any sort of nachos for a while.

We saw a matinée of “Our Family Wedding,” during which I munched on a box of Nerds.

I would like to show you dinner but it was so dark at our table I never could get a picture.  I shared green bean fries with my parents and ate half of a tamarind turkey burger.

When I got home I had 2 maple pecan sticky blondies for dessert.

Dreena would be sad to know I deveganized these, but at least I made the recipe for my parents!

This morning (Monday) I’m hanging out at school for a bit before I head home to pack.  I brought a pineapple Chiobani for breakfast,

but that didn’t begin to cut it.

I ended up also having an egg and cheese biscuit from Wendy’s.

It is 100% time to stop eating like I’m on vacation!  Especially because I’m not sure what the workout situation with my leg is going to be like.

I had fabulous spring break but I am more than ready to get back with the husband and back on a schedule.  I get in late tonight so I won’t be posting today’s eats but hopefully Tuesday my sleeping, eating, and blogging will all be back on track!  I can tell you now though, that I have a Greek Gods honey yogurt in the freezer for a pre-packing treat!

When you get to the end of a vacation are you sad it’s over or ready to get back to business?

Mostly Monday

Sorry for the lack of postage yesterday; Monday ended up being a bit crazy, in a good way!  The crazy combined with my diminished appetite means my eats for the day were just a bit off.  I never did get around to eating the rest of lunch, as soon as I hit publish I passed out into a hard-core nap.

I got woken up from my sleeping beauty session around 4 to ….. get tattoos!  I’m not showing any picture yet, because I’m getting a tiny touch-up this afternoon, but I got a small bow on my back to celebrate my first half marathon.

Camile’s tattoo was painful and ended up being a pretty long process.  I drank half a purple Rockstar to refuel.

This probably wasn’t the smartest snack choice but we spent the entire weekend hunting for purple (I really wanted my favorite flavor the morning of the half) and when I spotted it in the gas station I just couldn’t say no.

Camile needed ice-cream post-tattooing so we hit up Jeramiah’s again!

I had half of this small gelati; strawberry lemon ice with vanilla soft serve.

The combination was perfect, tangy and creamy go really well together in my opinion, but my stomach just wasn’t having it.  Honestly my leg hurts so badly it’s making my stomach hurt 😡  Which is why dinner never really happened either.

Although I did have an awesomely spicy Bloody Mary while we were out with some of Kristen’s guy friends.

I never munched on the appetizer plate the rest of the table had but I did take home the leftovers.  I’m having them for breakfast 🙂

P.S. Check out this tea package Olga’s giving away.

Blue Skies

It’s been a good day so far, and we have even more excitement planned for this evening.  I leave Orlando tomorrow afternoon so we are trying to fit in as much as possible, even if I do have to lurch around like Quasimodo to do it all!

I woke up around 9 this morning and by the time I was dressed and done stretching a breakfast breakfast didn’t sound very good.  Instead I ate my Pad See Eiw leftovers from last night.

Kristen had to work today but Camile and I took the opportunity to pamper our tired tootsies with pedicures!

This is my first pedicure in forever due to my foot problems so it was especially exciting.  My right ring toenail is probably going to come off soon but for now it’s looking good in sky blue.

We went to Publix afterwards to buy Kristen some ‘thank you for driving us at 3am’ flowers,

so I did lunch in the car.  A mini white chocolate macadamia Luna Bar from the expo,

and a apple banana Buddy Fruits.

I see some yogurt and a diet soda in my near future as well.  I’m not saying what the evening entails but I will tell you that I am so excited 🙂

What color would you pick for a pedicure now?  I felt like blue was the perfect spring color, but I was eyeing the purples pretty hard too.

P.S. I have no idea why my pictures are not in their places.  Here they are gallery style, for you to peruse at your leisure.  I suck.

Is March My Month?

It’s been a good day, I think March is going to be my month!  However, the day is sadly far from over so I’ve got to keep this quick.

I have to show you my best layered look to date!

Oh yeah.  And it was so warm (40*) that I didn’t even wear my coat today, score!

I spent so much time looking for tall socks to wear with my Uggs that my planned lunch couldn’t get packed.  Thankfully Mix1 recently sent me some drinks to try out so I grabbed the dark-berry flavor.

The taste was a bit off to me but it got through the lunchless hour so I’m a fan.  Oh yes I did pick the purple one to match my outfit!

My doctor’s appointment went perfectly: my surgery is almost 100% healed and I have no more foot warts!!!  I was seriously grinning so big when I left that office 😀

I got to campus an hour before my first class so I grabbed lunch while I worked.  You can’t go wrong with a bagel and Diet Coke.

I went with a cinnamon raisin bagel with strawberry cream cheese, yum.

I asked the woman to use 1 scoop (~1.5T) of cream cheese only and that was perfect.  A “traditionally” made bagel from that spot is a bit too much of an indulgence.

When I was leaving campus after my second class – 5hours later – I complained to the husband that I was hungry again and he pointed out my favorite chips ever as we passed the vending machine.

I’m sorry, at 150calories for buffalo and blue cheese all in the same place these chips are never wrong!

But to keep things healthy I made my dinner nice and green.

A leftover turkey burger with blue cheese and carmelized onions.

Some steamed broccoli and cauliflower.

And a pile of roasted collard greens.

I put a little bit of lime ponzu on the veggies and there was a side bowl of ketchup for the collards.

It’s after 9 and I have at least 2more hours of to-do’s today 😦   Hopefully I can get enough done today and tomorrow that I can leave stress-free on Thursday.  Tomorrow is my 8am lab and then I have a lunch date with my friend Kate so I’m not sure when I’ll be posting.  I hope everyone else is having a stress-free week!

What is your favorite kind of chips?  I seriously almost never ever used to eat chips, I don’t know what is with me these past few months but it’s like I can’t get enough!

Pan Panic

Whew, it feels like a while since I’ve been here!  I was in a terrible mood yesterday, I’m glad I was too busy to post because I’m not sure how chipper I could have been.  I was out of control hungry all day and in a god-awful mood and I ended up eating all sorts of junk.  On the plus side – I didn’t break my vegan challenge, my house is much much cleaner, and reading all your wonderful comments on my running post put me in a better mood! 

I will show off my newest layer-tastic outfit though  🙂  This vest is one of my favorite items of clothing.

And you better believe I’ve got another layered look planned for Thursday!

Today is going to be pretty crazy as well.  I had lab this morning and the husband has an observation this afternoon so I’m stuck on campus all day.  Once he’s all done and picked me up we are heading straight to Target – our nonstick pans are peeling and I’m pretty sure we are cooking our way to cancer!!!  😮

This morning I got up a bit early to pack a lunch and whipped up some smoothies for Adam and I.

~2cups frozen strawberries + 2cups Silk Light Chocolate Soy Milk + 1scoop chocolate Amazing Grass = tasty smoothie x 2

Lab went well, we had a substitute and we got out super quickly.  I’ve made good use of my campus time thus far.  I finished all of my post-lab calculations and I am officially 2 weeks ahead on my pre-lab work!  Then I started some reading and cracked open my lunch box 🙂

These leftover roasted veggies were soooo good, even better than the first night!

I ate half of this bag of baby carrots.

And I’m about to drink this Naked Blue Machine I picked up at volunteering.

The juice is pretty concentratedly caloric (340 per bottle) but I planned on it being the “bulk” of my lunch so it works out well.

I’ve got to get back to work!  When you ‘see’ me again I’ll be the proud owner of a new set of pans!

What kind of pans do you have?  Any recommendations or horror stories?  I’ve been pretty pleased with our pans but now that they are peeling in little flakes I’m a little freaked out.  Our selection will definitely be informed by our budget, but I want to make sure we get something that will allow us to cook healthfully.